Flood fury grips Andhra: Rail, road routes cut off

Amaravati: The main rail and road routes in Andhra Pradesh, connecting the south and east, remained cut off as the Penna river in spate caused heavy destruction on Sunday.

The Chennai-Kolkata National Highway-16 had to be closed down for traffic in SPS Nellore district following a heavy breach of road at Padugupadu. At least 17 Express trains were cancelled on the Chennai-Vijayawada grand trunk route as the flood overflowed on the railway track at Padugupadu. Three other trains were partially cancelled or diverted.

The State Disaster Management Authority said more than two lakh cusecs of floodwater flowed out of the Somasila reservoir in SPS Nellore district, leading to the deluge. This caused breach of the National Highway-16 at Kovuru as well.

Consequently, traffic on the NH-16 between Nellore and Vijayawada has been suspended, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded for kilometers on either side.

Hundreds of passengers were stuck in the Nellore RTC bus station as bus services were disrupted. ehicular traffic coming from Srikalahasti has been stopped at Tottembedu check post and diverted via Pamuru and Darsi, officials said. In Kadapa district, a bridge on the river Papagni collapsed at Kamalapuram, cutting off road communication between Kadapa and Anantapuramu districts.

Floodwater gushing out from the Veligallu reservoir led to the bridge collapse, officials said.

The Chittoor district administration in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday evening issued public warnings asking people of 16 villages to immediately vacate as some minor openings were developed on the tank bund in the 500-year old massive water tank called ‘Rayalacheruvu’ in the Ramachandra Mandal, 14 km from Tirupati. The oldest colossal tank had waters to its full capacity now for the first time and started developing minor breaches, officials said.

Meanwhile, the release of water from certain dams in Puducherry of Villupuram district had caused heavy inflow of water into the rivers here and large tracts of farm lands were inundated. There were reports of collapse of huts and houses. One person drowned in Malattar river in Madukarai recently. The territorial administration had also procured the services of the National Disaster Rescue Force to assist the people to move to safer places. A detailed report on rain havoc had been prepared by the local government, sources said. -(PTI)

Central team to assess  rain damage in Puducherry today

Puducherry: An inter ministerial central team would assess the damages the recent torrential rain caused in farm and other sectors in Puducherry during its visit here on Monday.

Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and Chief Minister N Rangasamy had appealed to the Centre to depute a central team to the union territory when it visits neighbouring Tamil Nadu since Sunday. After visiting the rain ravaged areas in Tamil Nadu, the team would arrive at Puducherry and visit the rain hit areas here between 4.15 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. and would also hold meetings with Lt Governor and Chief Minister, official sources said.

The CM had said that he had pleaded with the central government to earmark interim relief to the Union Territory to tackle the situation arising out of heavy downpour for almost 10 days under the influence of North East monsoon. PTI